One Last Bird

As 2022 wound down, I added one last bird to my yearly bird-watching list.

During one of my jogs this month, a birding calling from the top of a tree caught my attention. I'd never seen the species before, but after collecting enough visual and auditory evidence, I was able to return home and identify it through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds site.

The bird was a Townsend's solitaire. It was the 82nd and last species I sighted this year and the only addition to my life list that 2022 brought.

This year of birding certainly ended on one good note.

A Fall of Two Weeks

Fall lasted for about two weeks in western Washington this year.

The summer weather of high temperatures and smoky air continued through October 20. By then, the land was bone dry and the vegetation ready to flame up like tinder. Coniferous trees had begun dying off due to a lack of water. As for the deciduous trees, unless their leaves had dried up or dropped because of the drought, they remained green far into October, giving few signs that the calendar had turned to fall.

On October 21, rain finally arrived. The temperatures slipped into the 50s, and the deciduous trees began to change into their autumn colors.

The fall feeling didn't last long though as temperatures declined abruptly. A November 2 storm even dropped snow at Lake Crescent (elevation 580 feet) near Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula less than three weeks after the October 16 record temperature of 87 hit Seattle. 

Such a sudden shift from summer to winter has left many areas without green grass. In a normal year, fall rains would push up green shoots to replenish the grasses that go dormant and turn brown in the dry months of July and August. This year, the rain came so late that much of the grass had barely started growing again before the cold temperatures arrived to discourage further growth. Consequently, many fields and prairies remain brown.

It was a short fall to say the least.

Lost in a Place I Know

I know where I am, but I don't recognize this place.

Never in my life have I seen an October in Washington state like this one. Summer will not let go, and hardly a hint of fall has presented itself. Seattle recorded its latest day of 85+ degrees on October 16 by reaching 88, one degree shy of breaking its all-time October high temperature, which was set on October 1, 1987, more than two full weeks closer to summer.

Perhaps the most disorienting factor comes from the constant presence of wildfire smoke. For the second time since September 2020, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have the worst air quality in the world because of wildfires. Socked in for days on end, the smoke has defined this October as it had done to August and September in recent years. Today, even despite rain, the smoke would not relent.

Once one of my favorite months, the Pacific Northwest October has become an alien experience. It's hard to make sense of it. 

Something's been lost here, and now, I am as well.

Do You Know Where Your Migratory Bird Is?

Just in time for fall migration, the National Audubon Society has unveiled a great tool for understanding the journeys and challenges migratory birds face twice each year.

Bird Migration Explorer shows where species can be found at certain times. It also allows people to make larger connections by revealing other places a species they have seen can be found. Additionally, the tool has the ability to support conservation initiatives by allowing people to plan ways of helping birds make the difficult journeys. For more information, watch the video from the National Audubon Society below:

Birds have always served as great ambassadors for wildlife and the environment because people tend to encounter them more frequently than other types of wildlife. By offering the Bird Migration Explorer, the National Audubon Society helps people expand the impact a bird sighting has on them. To access the tool, click here.

Through this tool, we can learn more about birds, the interconnectedness of our environment, and our environmental influence.

Hot No Matter What

When the Pacific Northwest set all-time temperature records in June 2021, it did so following one of the driest springs on record, so in that sense, the records weren't a huge surprise.

In 2021, summer seemed to start at the beginning of April, giving the temperatures nearly three months to heat up to 110 degrees or more in late June.

The spring of 2022 presented a clear contrast to its predecessor though. Wet, cool weather carried into the middle part of June, bringing to mind springs of 20 or 30 years ago.

Still, the last part of June provided indications that the weather of spring might not hold back summer's high temperatures. From June 25 to June 27, temperatures shot up suddenly, approaching and even surpassing 90 degrees.

Cool weather returned for a couple of weeks to start July. It even brought a little rain around the Fourth of July, again harkening back to the trends of earlier decades.

Then, starting on July 26, an unprecedented stretch of 90-degree weather gripped the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in recorded history, Seattle experienced six straight days that reached at least 90 degrees. The previous record was five straight days of 90-degree weather. It had been achieved three times, most recently in 2015, a year that like 2021, had begun heating up and drying out early in the spring.

In light of 2021's heat, this year's record fits into a larger trend. That the 2022 record came out of a year that had been relatively cool (by recent standards) gives it its own alarming reality though.

The fact is that extreme heat is becoming so common in the age of global warming, it requires hardly any lead-up to take hold and set new records.

Connections and Relationships

Building connections and relationships has always been crucial to social causes. Its importance continues to grow as the bonds linking society fray and rupture.

In its efforts to undertake conservation projects in southwest Washington, which I previously blogged about here, Conservation Northwest is taking steps to ensure such connections and relationships have strong roots.

On July 20-22, the nonprofit organization will co-host the Southwest and Coastal Washington Connectivity Summit. The summit will bring together nonprofits, tribes, government agencies, land owners, and businesses to lay the groundwork for future efforts to ensure habitat connectivity and address ecological issues like global warming. This will be the first summit on these issues in southwest Washington, but the plan is to continue holding them every two years.

This year's event is in Ridgefield, Washington. However, it can also be attended virtually.

I'm very excited to see the potential of the relationships that come out of these summits.

The Stuff of Childhood Dreams

When I was a kid, I did not walk to school in the snow uphill both ways. However, I did like dinosaurs and subscribe to Ranger Rick, the magazine from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).

That's why a new development in the Ranger Rick offerings made me think what a wonderful opportunity children today have.

Earlier this month, the NWF announced that it would begin publishing a Ranger Rick dedicated to just dinosaurs. My childhood self jumped for joy at this news because I knew many kids would love the magazine as much as I would have if it had been around when I was growing up.

Ranger Rick Dinosaurs will join Ranger Rick, Ranger Rick Jr., Ranger Rick Cub, and three Zoobooks in the NWF's list of magazines for kids. I think it's a great addition to a lineup that is already very strong, and I hope a lot of children have a chance to read it.

For this magazine, I would definitely walk in the snow uphill both ways.

Pieces of Possibility

Executing big ideas can require piece-by-piece action. 

Comprehensive visions of environmental conservation are both vital and exciting. We must think those big thoughts if we are to create a scope of action that operates on the level of ecosystems. Additionally, such expansive goals help us rise to the challenge of major environmental issues like global warming. Very importantly, big plans generate energy and enthusiasm about what's possible. 

Still, when it comes to making possibilities into realities, a different, smaller, and typically more demanding approach takes the wheel. We must prepare to work at issues over a long period of time and take opportunities where we can find them even if they are small and scattered. It's about being meticulous and tenacious and comprehending the long-term commitment necessary for success. Conservation Northwest's Cascades to Olympics program, which I previously blogged about here, is shaping up to be a great example of how we need to piece together major projects. Check out the video below to learn about the program and how people are finding ways to make it happen.

   

I really like how Conservation Northwest has looked for possible options that help provide connectivity for wildlife between the Cascade Mountains and the Olympic Mountains. They have assessed the areas that would maximize connection and then looked for opportunities to make those connections better. Each piece requires its own unique work. For example, on the Satsop River in Grays Harbor County, Conservation Northwest has found a way to make the most of a bridge by clearing space for wildlife to walk under it. By contrast, along Interstate 5, the organization is working with the Veterans' Ecological Trades Collective to perhaps create a wildlife overpass that would provide wildlife with a safe option for crossing the freeway. Put together with other projects over a period of years, the work on the Satsop River and the potential I-5 overpass could produce the kind of connectivity Conservation Northwest desires. 

The dream seems more possible as dedicated and hard work puts pieces in place.

Getting Closer

A special conservation project took a step closer to fulfillment this month.

In late 2019, I blogged about a proposal to expand the Davis Creek Wildlife Area Unit, a piece of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) land very close to my heart. Happily, the proposal was accepted a few months later, and WDFW began looking for funding to make the land purchases that would support the project.

At its most recent meeting, the Fish and Wildlife Commission approved the purchase of a 94-acre parcel, which represents about a quarter of the total proposed 416-acre addition to the Davis Creek Unit. Additional parcels will need to be purchased before the entire project is complete, but the acquisition of this piece is great news. The exciting vision of preserving this area now feels closer to reality.

Any conservation effort is important to me. However, because of the close connections I talked about in the 2019 post, adding to the Davis Creek Unit touches me just a little more. It's also a special experience to see this project develop from a proposal to the acquisition phase.

I would like to thank the Fish and Wildlife Commission for allowing the expansion of the Davis Creek Unit to move forward.

Not Much Left to Say and Little Time to Say It

Reading news of the latest climate report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change left the impression that not much remains to say about global warming.

It's here now, and its impacts compound as we speak, but we're long past the point of talking. As this article by the National Audubon Society explains, nine percent of species will face extinction within a decade if nothing is done...

The Non-Human and an Expanded Notion of Social Change

Perhaps social change in this era needs a change in what we think about as social. Two recent examples of individuals connecting with the non-human world provide clues for how that might happen.

Without question, we face some massive and serious social and environmental issues. These include our ability to address global warming, mass extinctions, increasing poverty, and a deterioration of the social bonds and institutions that bring people together and build communities.

At the same time, we struggle to generate the kind of momentum that produces the changes required to address these issues. In fact, the breakdown of social bonds and institutions likely feeds into that struggle, creating a vicious circle of unsolved problems and declining abilities to solve them.

After reading about two individuals who discovered strong connections with the non-human world and went on to become important forces for change on both social and environmental issues, the thought occurred to me that one of the obstacles impeding change might be that our definition of what is social should be expanded to include the non-human world. In other words, issues like global warming are so far-reaching that to address them adequately, we must bring all hands, paws, wings, roots, and whatever else on deck.

Connections with the non-human world can provide the kind of spark necessary for successful social change. The stories of Rodney Stotts, a falconer from Virginia, and Bob Russell, a landowner in rural Washington state demonstrate the power these connections have. In the case of Stotts, an early experience with conservation and a subsequent connection with birds of prey inspired him to centralize conservation in his life and help others enjoy and benefit from the same kinds of connections. His work has allowed people to rethink their place in the world and find second chances and catharsis. For the 63-year-old Russell, a chance encounter with a determined salmon on his property in November 2014 launched his commitment to conservation and prompted him to become an advocate in his community.

Importantly, the efforts of Stotts and Russell indicate how inspiration from and connection with the non-human world can serve as catalysts for actions that help rebuild the social bonds so crucial to the process of social change. Many factors currently limit our ability to produce social change, but one that isn't often talked about is that we might not be considering how vital non-human entities are to the effort. Possibly, these non-human entities can become partners in the process, helping us begin, facilitate, and optimize the activities that generate social bonds, form communities, and yield the changes we need.

From now on, when we think about what is social, we would do well to think about more than just humans.

Double Coverage

Maybe it was all the twos in 2022, but when this year began, my management of the Facebook page for the Black Hills Audubon Society hit a fitting milestone.

On May 22, 2019, I started managing the page. At that time, it had amassed 364 followers in a little more than seven years. By January 1, 2022, that number had doubled to 728.

To add to the excitement, January 2022 has given the page a good start toward the next 364. Already this month, the page has 21 new followers.

The growth during the last 32 months means a lot to me. It is great to see my work having an impact, and it is equally satisfying watching the organization's Facebook coverage expand.

You could say it's twice as nice when achievements like this go toward a good cause.